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<title>pulling your puzzles apart by giventofly37 (fits_in_frames)</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24173896">pulling your puzzles apart</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/fits_in_frames/pseuds/giventofly37'>giventofly37 (fits_in_frames)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Bones (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Confessions, F/M, First Time, Food</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2007-11-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2007-11-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 22:27:36</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,439</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24173896</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/fits_in_frames/pseuds/giventofly37</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>'She folds her hands in front of her, and watches them to make sure they don't start shaking, however foolish that might sound in her head. "I can understand physical attraction, Booth, but I'm emotionally--cold and distant and--" She swallows, catches her breath. She wishes she was anywhere but here right now.'</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Seeley Booth/Temperance Brennan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>16</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>pulling your puzzles apart</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p><i>i was just guessing</i><br/><i>at numbers and figures</i><br/><i>pulling your puzzles apart</i><br/><i>questions of science</i><br/><i>science and progress</i><br/><i>do not speak as loud as my heart</i><br/>{coldplay // the scientist}</p><p>Unbeta'd, all shortcomings are my own. [Archived May 2020.]</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>He asks her to go out for coffee on a Thursday. They finished a case on Tuesday, and he doesn't have a new one, so there's no rhyme or reason to it, but she goes along with it because it's Booth and sometimes she just has to accept him as he is. That, and Angela told her to go and gave her that look that would mean "I'll tell you when you're older" if she was a child and Angela was her mother. She decides not to contemplate that scenario.</p><p>He meets her at the diner, wearing his usual after-work tee-shirt-and-jeans. She feels horribly over-dressed, but she came directly from work and it shouldn't matter anyway. He orders apple pie and she gets a toasted muffin. He smirks at her when she stumbles over the word "blueberry." It's been a long week.</p><p>She makes small talk with him, even when they get their food, and after she asks him another question about Parker, he points at her with his fork and comments that she's doing a good job of acting as a normal human being. She shrugs and says, "I learned from the best." He gives a proud chuckle and drinks his coffee.</p><p>They're both on their second cup when he gets very serious all of a sudden. "There's something I need to tell you," he says, spreading his hands on the table in front of him. "It's actually the reason I asked you to meet me here."</p><p>She bobs her head in a half-nod. "Yeah, sure."</p><p>"It's--kind of big," he says, almost wincing, his voice suddenly going quiet. That always worries her.</p><p>"Booth, what is it?"</p><p>He sighs shallowly, through his nose. "I like you, Bones."</p><p>She sips her coffee, holding the cup with both hands. "I like you too, Booth," she says, matter-of-factly.</p><p>"No, no," he says, leaning in on his elbows. "I mean. I <i>like</i> you."</p><p>She sets down her coffee cup. "You mean you're attracted to me."</p><p>"Yes. Exactly. Very much so." He presses his lips together like he does when she asks him about being a sniper or believing in God.</p><p>She folds her hands in front of her, and watches them to make sure they don't start shaking, however foolish that might sound in her head. "I can understand physical attraction, Booth, but I'm emotionally--cold and distant and--" She swallows, catches her breath. She wishes she was anywhere but here right now. "I don't understand how you--you, of all people--I mean, you know my secrets and my past, but you don't--you don't really know me. You don't know the real me."</p><p>"I know that you put two sugars in your coffee," he says without flinching or skipping a beat. "I know that you put the second one in halfway through, when you think I'm not looking, because you like it sweet right at the end. I know that you butter your muffin one half at a time so the half you're not eating first doesn't soak through. I know that you don't eat eggs before eleven in the morning or after seven at night. I know that your favorite fruit is green grapes, and you eat them one at a time."</p><p>"That only proves you've eaten too many meals with me," she mumbles.</p><p>He smiles. "I'm not done yet." He shifts in his chair, and moves his hand to rest on top of both of hers. It's warm and it makes her uncomfortable in a way that she inexplicably doesn't want to stop. "I know you wear olive green on Tuesdays, and maroon on Fridays. I know you changed your eye shadow six months ago. I know your favorite color is the shade of blue the sky turns just after sunset. I know you hate stud earrings and you'll only wear them if you're in a rush. I know your shampoo smells like violets. And I know, I know--I'm just being observant," he says when she sits up and opens her mouth to protest, "but I know when you feel safe, and I know when you don't. I know that you hurt, every minute of every single day, whether you show it or not. And you're right, there's a lot I don't know--but I'd like to." He runs his thumb along her knuckles and waits for her to respond.</p><p>Only she doesn't react, because she's not sure how. She's used to rules and regulations, and this--this definitely is out of her field, and she has no idea what to do.</p><p>"Bones," he says, snapping her out of her haze of what she now realizes is panic.</p><p>She looks up at him, wide-eyed, and pulls her hands away from his, into her lap.</p><p>He sits back in his chair and looks away from her, towards the floor. She leans forward. "I'm sorry," he says, quietly. "I shouldn't've brought it up, it's completely--" But he never finishes his sentence because she's suddenly overcome with a wave of courage and desire and practically climbs on top of the table so she can reach to grab his face and press their mouths together. (She tastes apples and cinnamon and what she's fairly sure was about to be the word "inappropriate" on his tongue.)</p><p>--</p><p>They barely make it back to her place because he won't stop trying to kiss her neck. She doesn't really <i>want</i> him to stop, but she's <i>driving</i> and she can't pay attention to the road if there's a man nibbling on her earlobe. Especially if that man's name starts with a Seeley and ends with a Booth. Once they're out of the car, he wraps his arms around her waist. He kisses her cheek and she tries not to giggle, and they walk that awkward clomping walk all the way to her apartment. He releases her only to let her open the door, but as soon as they're inside, he pins her to the bookshelf and kisses her, deep and long and greedy, and she almost forgets to breathe. She hooks her fingers in his belt loops and drags him away from the door, peppering the corners of his mouth with little nipping kisses. She pulls him all the way into her bedroom, which is a horrible disorganized mess, but he doesn't seem to care, or even notice. She falls back onto her bed, and he climbs on top of her, straddling her shoulders with his arms, kissing her the whole time. He leans down and runs his tongue along the ridges of her ear, and whispers in her ear, "Want you."</p><p>She pushes on his chest so she can see his eyes again, says, "I know," then takes his face between her hands and cranes her neck up hungrily to kiss him again. He readjusts his knees on the sides of her hips and reaches down to unbuckle his belt. She blindly reaches for her nightstand, rolls onto her side while he pulls his pants down around his thighs, opens and searches the top drawer until she finds the box of condoms and pulls one out. She rolls back to him, and he's holding a little silver package, too. They laugh, together, a little breathy and a little hysterically, and then he wordlessly takes hers and sticks his back in his pocket. She undoes her pants, and unceremoniously lifts her hips so she can shove them around her knees and kick them onto the floor as he puts the condom on. She worms her legs out from under his, and he leans forward again so he's directly above her, reaches his hand down between her legs, finds her wet slit. His fingers are rough and calloused and light and gentle all at once, and she almost can't help but arch her back and close her eyes. When she opens them again, he's studying her face, smiling at her, seemingly uncontrollably.</p><p>"You ready?"</p><p>She nods, almost feeling the hormones running through her bloodstream. Her brain forces her to think of the biology of it, but she can't, not now, because this is Seeley, this is different. She's trying to push her logical, scientific thoughts out of her head when his finger twitches minutely and does it for her.</p><p>--</p><p>He falls asleep first, his hand still pinned awkwardly under her hip. She rolls onto her side and drapes her arm on him, his heart thumping quietly beneath her fingers. She watches him, feels his chest rise and fall, presses her nose to his shoulder, and for the first time in a long time, she feels absolutely safe.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>{Come say hi on <a href="https://dreamsincolor.tumblr.com/">Tumblr</a> or <a href="https://twitter.com/fits_in_frames">Twitter</a>!}</p></blockquote></div></div>
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